by Sam Crescent
What tore him apart was the fact that she was human.
There shouldn’t be this call, this need to mate with her. He was the Alpha. The call to mate with someone should be with his own pack.
Changing back into his human form, he reached out, touching the water.
She needs us.
He couldn’t get rid of a sick feeling filling his stomach, nor the pain that was threatening to tear out of his chest.
“Hello, Reese.”
Looking up, he saw that Mischa, the strongest female within the pack, was walking toward him. She was a slender woman, confident in her own body. Like most pack females, she possessed slender hips, small breasts, and a physique that he didn’t find attractive.
“Yes, Mischa,” he said, thinking about the woman that worked at the café. She made him hard when she was fully clothed, taking orders from everyone.
“Are you not going to join in the running?”
“I’m content to stay here.”
“Oh, would you like some company?”
Reese knew she was trying to get into his good graces. She wanted him to mate with her so that she could have full control of the pack along with him. He wasn’t interested in her. Reese scented her cruelty, and he didn’t like it.
“You may sit.” He walked into the water, staring up at the full moon as he glowed full in the night. Nights like tonight, he felt the full power of the calling. Closing his eyes, he basked in the scent, and that was when he felt it. Something new, something unusual.
Opening his eyes, he spun, and found Mischa right beside him. She placed her hand on his chest. “I can make you feel so good, Alpha,” she said.
He took hold of her hand and moved her away from him. “I’m not interested, Mischa.”
“Alpha, I’m the best in the pack.” She went to touch his cock, and he slapped her hand away.
“You don’t belong to me, nor have I made a claim to you. Don’t even think of taking what doesn’t belong to you.” He moved out of the water, scenting something new in the air. She hadn’t scented it, which told him that she may be strong, but she wasn’t powerful.
Leaving the lake, he followed the path of his calling. His wolf was desperate, clawing to get out, and he ignored it. This new scent, it made his mouth water, and he wanted more. Moving through the forest, he felt his second in command, Draco following behind.
“Do you smell it?” Draco asked.
“I smell something, and the air, do you feel that?” Reese asked.
Draco, besides Alex, was the only wolf he trusted to be this close to him. They were all shifters. Alex being that of a bear, while he and Draco were wolves.
“What is going on with you two?” Mischa asked, clearly losing patience with being pushed aside.
He wasn’t interested in her.
For the next twenty minutes, he rushed through the pack, and then he heard it.
“Reese! Reese! Reese!”
Alex, the bear shifter, was calling his name. The scent of death hung heavy in the air, and part of him just knew that something had gone wrong. Rushing toward the shouting, he entered a clearing in the patch, and saw blood, death, and the unmistakable scent of wolf.
“I can’t stop the bleeding,” Alex said.
There was a torn leg that he stepped over. One body was torn to shreds, and when he got up to Alex, his heart broke. There on the ground, unconscious, dying, was Bethany. She had three claw marks across her face, oozing blood. Across her chest he saw the bite marks. Her body was broken, fragile, and she was dying.
Collapsing to his knees, he cupped her head.
He didn’t care about his nakedness.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Isn’t that the waitress?” Draco asked. “Bethany?”
“It is.”
“She left to go home, and I didn’t think to walk her. It’s a full moon. You guys are always around the lake. The café isn’t near the lake. I thought she would be safe.” Alex had tears flowing down his cheeks. “She was supposed to be safe.”
“She must have come into the wood.”
“Her scent was all over the dead woman. I think she tried to help her. Got in the way of whatever wolf was intent on attacking her.”
“The scent of the wolf. It’s not familiar,” Draco said.
“I shouted for you. I knew you’d hear me.”
Reese frowned. “I didn’t hear you to start off with.”
“You must have,” Alex said.
“No. I was by the lake. My hearing is good, not that good.”
“Then how did you know to come?”
“There’s a scent, something new, something… exciting,” Draco said. “Can you still smell it?”
Reese could smell it. The scent was coming from the dying woman he never got a chance to taste. Pressing his head to hers, he tried to contain his anguish, but it was hard.
“Shouldn’t she be dead already?” Mischa asked.
Sitting up, he felt his wolf come to the surface. “Leave, female!”
Mischa bowed down, showing her submission. “I mean no disrespect, Alpha. She’s human, and her injuries should have killed her, but she’s not dead.”
Reese tried to calm his wolf enough to focus.
Bethany was still breathing, and as he leaned down to press his ear against her mouth, he heard her getting… stronger. He didn’t know how that was possible. She was a human. The other human had been torn to shreds, and yet Bethany not only lived, she was surviving. “We need to move her.”
Draco came close and sniffed. “What the fuck is happening to her?”
“I don’t know.” He was going to find out. “Out of the way.” Going to her side, he picked her up, and she didn’t make a sound. Not a gasp, no noise at all. With Mischa, Alex, and Draco with him, he carried her all the way to his cabin.
“Do you want me to call the doctor?” Mischa asked.
“What will he do?” Alex asked. “Tell us everything we already know.”
“It’s just a thought.”
“Look, right now, I just want to get her somewhere comfortable. If these are going to be her last few moments on earth, I want her to at least be comfortable.”
They walked for several steps, Draco falling in step beside him. “She’s not dying. The scent of her is changing. She’s becoming wolf but also human. What is going on?”
“He bit her.”
“That’s fiction, Reese. You and I both know you cannot change from a bite alone. It has to be in your blood.”
“Or not. Just because we don’t know of it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
Alex rushed on ahead to get the door, opening it up. Reese went straight through to his bedroom, placing her on the bed. He quickly grabbed a pair of pants, pulling them up his thighs.
Stepping close to her once again, what he saw amazed him. The blood was covered by flesh. Her body was healing in ways he’d only ever seen a wolf heal.
“That’s creepy,” Mischa said, rubbing her arms.
Reese didn’t find it creepy. He was just so damn happy that Bethany wasn’t dying.
* * * *
Bethany couldn’t recall ever being this warm, this happy, or this content. The nightmare of moments ago had faded, and now she just saw brilliant warmth and light. Everything was perfect.
We have to go back.
She heard the female voice but didn’t recognize it.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Beneath her feet, air turned to sand, and she sank down, enjoying the grains rushing between her toes.
He needs us.
“No one needs me.”
Suddenly, the ground changed, and she was back at the forest, the wolf attacking. She threw herself in front of the other woman, the injured one. It was no good. The beast bit her, throwing her across the ground. She tried to save the woman, and all she did was see her torn apart. Next, the wolf turned on her, slashing, biting, killing her.
Only instead of waking to the warmth, she
stayed within her body, and a large brown wolf stood over her.
You have to listen.
“Are you talking to me?”
Yes.
“This is creepy.”
You have to wake up.
“You took me away from my happy place.” Tears filled her eyes as she thought about how happy she’d been, and now how sad she felt.
It’s not your time yet. This is your fate, your destiny.
“I want to go home.”
Wake up, Bethany.
“The pain?”
Will fade quickly.
“What happened to that girl?”
Silence fell.
“Please, tell me.”
She passed away. It was her time, and she wasn’t destined to be with a mate.
“Life matters. All life matters.”
Which is why he needs you. The pack needs you. The pack is dying without you. They will all need you.”
“They?”
Everything is changing. It was one, but now it’s three. Interesting. You’re going to be one lucky girl.
The wolf before her made no sense, and suddenly, the world was fading once again.
“Bethany, can you hear me?”
The voice was distant.
Her eyes were so heavy.
“Bethany?”
“Bethany?”
She recognized the voices. Bethany opened her eyes, and looked up at three men and one woman.
The events of the past few hours collided, and without thought she opened her mouth and screamed.
Pushing up from the bed, she curled her arm around her legs, holding herself together.
Everyone moved away, and she was panting, breathing heavily. So much noise, and the smells; it was too much. Howling in the distance, screaming so far away. She covered her ears and begged for them to make it stop.
The noise was too loud. She couldn’t think.
“Make it stop. Make it stop. It hurts.”
“She can hear everything,” Draco said. He was a nice man, tipped well, and she never got his order wrong.
“A newly turned wolf,” Mischa said.
We don’t like her. She’s a bitch.
The wolf paced through her mind, and the anger, the rage, and the hurt combined together, and she directed her focus on Mischa. The woman who, in the past, did everything she could to humiliate her at the café. “You’re not welcome near me.”
The three men gasped, and she glanced at them.
“Her eyes, look at them,” Alex said.
“They’re wolf eyes. They’re so beautiful,” Reese said.
Both men were nice, only she got Reese’s order wrong.
“She’s a bully. I want her gone. Get her out. Get her out!” She screamed the words, trying to bring focus back to herself but when they didn’t move fast enough, she took over and shoved at the woman. Rushing out of the bed with a speed that scared her. She stood in front of Micha and pushed hard. The woman tumbled. “I said get out!”
“Reese?” Mischa asked, sounding terrified.
Why was she terrified?
“Get out, Mischa.”
“I need to call the pack. They need to know we’re under attack.” Mischa got to her feet, and the wolf inside Bethany didn’t like it. Before she could do anything, Draco and Alex grabbed her. Reese grabbed Mischa, and started pushing her back.
“I’m the Alpha. I say what goes, and if for a second you think of telling them what is happening, I will make sure you suffer.”
“She’s not normal,” Mischa said. “She has to be destroyed.”
“She’s perfect,” Reese, Alex, and Draco said, at exactly the same time.
Bethany didn’t know what was going on. They were all looking at her. Their eyes flashing a weird color, and with the noise and the fear, everything went black.
Chapter Three
Alex stared down at the woman who had passed out in his arms. He couldn’t believe it, but the feelings inside him were real. The bear inside him was desperate to hold her, claim her, love her. Bethany had been working for him so long, and he’d not experienced any of these feelings, and yet the urge to mate was fast calling upon him. He lifted her up so that she was supported between him and Draco as Reese took care of the petulant little wolf.
Carrying her back to the bed, they placed her on top and he knelt beside her, as did Draco.
“You feel it, too, don’t you?” Alex asked.
“Yes.”
“We have a problem,” Reese said, coming into the room.
“You’re little alphette wannabe going to hunt the rest of the pack?” Alex glanced toward him.
“No. Do you three see what is happening right now?” Reese gestured to all three of them.
Alex saw what was happening.
They all had the urge to mate with Bethany. Looking at Draco, he saw the need within him, just as he held the need, and so did Reese.
“This can’t happen,” Reese said.
“Why not? She’s a woman. A wolf woman, I admit, but she’s also human.”
“This isn’t right.”
“For heaven’s sake, Reese, neither is a woman turning into a wolf, but I scent her. I smell the change inside her, and if you think for a second I’m going to let you take her, you’re fucking wrong.”
“We all have mated with her,” Draco said, finally speaking up.
“We haven’t, not yet.” This came from Reese, who started to pace up and down. “I won’t allow this to happen.”
“You don’t have a choice. This is what our beasts want. You can’t come in the way of that.”
“I’m not going to let you hurt her.”
Draco got to his feet. “Do we look like we’d hurt her? We held her before she dropped to the floor. This is all too much for her.”
“I saw her first!” Reese yelled the words.
“No, I saw her first. I gave her a fucking job.”
“Wait, if you all want to start going on that, I saw her first, I was in school with her!” Draco said.
She whimpered, and they all froze.
“Let’s take this outside,” Alex said.
They all walked outside, and he stared up at the moon. As a bear shifter, he never felt the calling of the moon. He was an alpha in his own right, and because of that, he could turn at any time. Reese could as well, and he felt the calling of the alpha.
“So, we all want her?” Alex said.
“We don’t have a choice.”
“Fuck off,” Reese said, glaring at Draco. “We all have a choice.”
“You telling me you’re not happy about this? For months you’ve been coming into my café wanting to mate with her.”
“She’s mine!”
“No. She’s not just yours,” Draco said. “You can feel it, too. If you didn’t feel the calling of all three of us, you would have slaughtered us right here, right now. Bethany belongs to all of us.”
“We don’t even know what she is,” Reese said.
“She’s ours. That’s what she is. The reason she is different, she’s destined to be mated to three rather than just the one.” Alex had heard of some women needing more than one mate but that was across shifters, from wolves to coyotes. Some women were weak, and the need for three mates was essential to her staying alive.
Reese was the alpha of his pack, Draco the second in command, and Alex was also the Alpha of his bear pack. Only there weren’t many bears around.
“What do you suggest?” Reese asked.
“We all mate her,” Draco said.
“What if she doesn’t want it?”
Alex was growing angrier by the second. “We’re not rapists, Reese. She will have a choice. We’re not going to rush into the bedroom, wake her up, and fuck her. She’s still a person.”
“With a wolf inside her,” Draco said.
They glared at him.
“I just wanted to point that out. She is part wolf, and one day she will feel the mating heat.”
&nbs
p; The mating heat was a lot stronger in the wolf pack than the bears. Alex had seen how desperate the women get, and they will fuck all night long, whatever man will have them to ease the burn. Knowing Bethany, it would destroy her. She wasn’t the kind of woman to invite anyone into her bed, whether she had a choice or not.
“Her senses are alive. She can’t go back to work, at least not yet.”
“No. She can’t,” Alex agreed with Reese.
“She’s going to have to stay here,” Draco said. “We’re going to have to look after her, take care of her, and offer her the support she needs during this time.”
One look at Reese, and Alex saw he didn’t like it.
“None of us are going to try to take her away, Reese.”
“I’ve wanted that woman for so long.”
“I know, and you’ll have her.”
Silence fell between them, and Alex wished he could read minds. He wanted to know what Reese was thinking.
“Did you know? Did you have this connection to her?” Alex asked.
“I knew I wanted her, that was it.”
“What about you?” He turned to Draco.
“I was always close to her. I hated the thought of anyone hurting her but I just put that down to being a nice fucking guy,” Draco said.
“So all of us have been wanting Bethany, protecting her, and it’s only now we’re all realizing she’s our mate?” Alex asked.
They all looked at each other and knew there was no way back from this. Bethany belonged to all of them.
* * * *
From the moment Reese took over as Alpha of the Riser Woods pack, Draco had been there by his side, offering him support and his loyalty. He visited the café where Bethany worked, and he’d wanted to ask her out. Of course he held back as he’d noticed his Alpha’s interest.
Now, there was no holding back.
Bethany had three shifters at her beck and call.
“She’s going to be nervous,” Alex said.
“We have to come up with a plan for this to work.” Reese paced.